


Forgiveness

by webeta123



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Chekov's Pizza Slice, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-War, Professor Draco Malfoy, Professor Harry Potter, Professor Neville Longbottom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:28:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29013591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/webeta123/pseuds/webeta123
Summary: Hermione did something that he didn't think he could forgive. He could probably forgive it in about a week, maybe less depending on how the next few days went. That didn't mean he would be okay with her yet.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 1
Kudos: 122





	Forgiveness

**Author's Note:**

> A story?? From this author? It's more likely than you think! This is based entirely on an omegle roleplay I did with someone last night that led to this expansion of that roleplay. I didn't get the chance to get any contact information for that person and I think I focused primarily on my characters but if you recognize this idea, let me know!

Harry woke up as upset as he was the afternoon before. It wasn’t a good feeling, the already settling anger that he thought he had worked through coming back up his stomach and brewing in his throat. He blinked his eyes open, peering for his glasses over his partner’s head who was starting to wake himself. “Harry?” Draco muttered, “It’s still dark out.”

“It’s almost six.” Harry whispered to him, casting a quick _Tempus_ charm with the wave of his hand showing that it was _5:45 AM_ already. “I need to feed Persie.” Draco huffed as he turned over in bed and covered his head with the duvet. Harry snorted, grateful that he could start to feel happiness again. “Do you want to go on our morning run in about twenty minutes?”

“Yeah alright.” Draco grumbled from somewhere under the pillow he had added to the top of his head. 

Harry chuckled as he rose, his brown Newfoundland resting her chin on his side of the bed and already starting to drool slightly on the slippers she had in her mouth. “Alright, come on, sweet girl.” Harry adjusted his glasses as he pulled the slippers onto his feet and making his way to the kitchenette where her bowls sat waiting patiently by the end cabinet. Harry gave her some kibble and a cup of green beans with a fresh round of water, grumbling to himself as his anger set in again.

He didn’t want to feel this way about his best friend, he truly didn’t. The night before he had used the punching bag that Dudley gave him for Christmas last year for over a half hour, ranting to Draco who had thought they were going to grade papers together, about the disrespect that Hermione decided to show him and their relationship. He thought about using it again while Draco got up, but instead he figured he could work through it on their morning run together.

Persie (a nickname that Draco loathed since her full name was Persephone) happily chewed away at her breakfast, unaware of her master’s upset. He watched as Draco made his way into the bathroom, dragging a blanket over his shoulders like a cloak. Harry snorted at the sight of him then sighed as he tried to think about something else besides Hermione. This was supposed to be a normal Wednesday at Hogwarts. Neither he or Draco were on breakfast duty and they were on the B schedule so the first class wasn’t until 8:30. He guessed he really didn’t need to be up this early, but Persie needed her morning walk and he needed the fresh air. He had started these walks with Persie after adopting her and his stint in the Janus Ward shortly after the war. _I just don’t want you to be taken advantage of, Harry. You know I only had your best interests at heart._ Harry shook his head violently to get Hermione’s voice out of his ear. He had told her a week to decide whether he was accepting her apology and that was what he was sticking to. (He knew he would probably forgive her before then, but still, it was the principle of the matter.)

He went into the bathroom as Draco exited, brushing his teeth and running his fingers through his hair a few times to separate the curls. They were a bit everywhere and he definitely needed to trim his beard when they got back, but he wasn’t going to worry about that now. _I found this new haircare routine for people who have aggressive curl patterns like ours, Harry! So what you do is--_ Harry grunted lowly as he went back to the bedroom where Draco was pulling on a pair of track pants and looking around for his sneakers.

“Do I even have a pair in here?” Draco asked himself as Harry found a pair of socks and threw them at his head. Draco caught them without looking, going on all fours to look under the bed. “Is it alright if I use these old ones of yours?” He asked, looking up at Harry with a pair of black trainers in hand.

“That’s fine, they might be a bit big on you though.” 

“It’ll be fine, we’re within half sizes of each other.” Draco said, pulling on his socks and shoes as Harry found his own trainers. 

_Exercise is very important for a recovering mind, Harry, I’m really glad that you’ve found a routine that you love so much. I’m not sure how I feel about Malfoy though…_

“Get out of my head, Hermione.” Harry grumbled.

“Still mad?” Draco asked as Harry put Persie’s harness on her and leashed her up. 

“Yeah, still mad.” Harry agreed as they left his quarters and made their way to the front door. 

“You know you’re going to forgive her eventually.” Draco told him.

“Yeah I know. I told her to give me the week and I’ll decide if I accept her apology or not then.” Draco shook his head affectionately as they walked out onto the grounds, Persie taking a steady pace as they made their way towards the Lake. 

“You know I wouldn’t say this unless I thought it was true,” Draco started, looking to Harry as they stretched at the bank of the Lake, “she didn’t mean to hurt you.” He went down into a side stretch, reaching for his left foot with his right arm over his head.

“Yeah, I know she didn’t.” Harry agreed, bending over to touch his toes, “Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt.” Persie did her own stretch, going into a bowing position and then laying on the bank to watch them stretch. 

“She didn’t think it all the way through. I can understand her reasoning.” 

“Yeah but here’s my problem.” Harry said as he pulled his arm across his chest. “So she thinks I moved into our relationship too fast. Yeah, alright, I moved at your pace, which was slower than I wanted but maybe faster than she was ready for--”

“If we went at your pace, we’d be married by now.” Draco said with a shake of his head which turned into neck rolls. 

“We’ve only been together six months, I’m not that stupid.” Harry protested, reaching towards the dawnlit sky and hearing his shoulders pop. Draco made a noise that suggested he doubted that. Harry rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, sure, she probably wanted to make sure I hadn’t been given anything that would impair my judgement, even though that was one of the goals from Healer Winter that I was equipped with the knowledge of how not to lose control like I did when Voldemort was around.” Draco winced as Harry picked up the leash and they started on their normal run. Once they got to speed, the brisk Lake air combined with the November breeze chilling both of them quickly, Harry continued. “That’s why I was ok with her giving me the love potion test at my birthday party. Happy birthday, Harry, your partner isn’t drugging you.” 

Draco huffed, “Hey wait a second, I gave you one too.”

“You gave me one because you didn’t realize that I reciprocated.” Harry corrected, glancing at Persie who was happily trotting alongside him. 

“Alright.” Draco said, knowing this was a familiar fight for both of them. _The only reason I didn’t say anything sooner was because I saw the way he looked at you_. Harry let Hermione’s voice leave his mind without much fanfare. 

“But I didn’t complain about that because I understood where she stood on it.” Harry said, “What I am mad about was that she gave me _four_ without my knowledge. And now I have to look at every interaction I’ve had with her for the past six months and wonder if she was waiting for some grand epiphany where she could say ‘I told you so’.” Harry said, gritting his teeth as he ran harder. Persie picked up the pace happily, though Draco was decidedly not as happy about it. 

“If it’s any consolation, it annoys me too.” Draco said as they made their first lap around the lake and started on their second. “But at the end of the day I understand why.” 

“She thinks I’m an idiot who goes headfirst into everything and doesn’t know when to quit.” Harry said with a growl.

“No, she just knows you.” Draco corrected. “You are one of the most full-hearted people I’ve ever known which means you have a lot to give the world and a lot that people want to take from you, being the Chosen One notwithstanding. She just wanted to make sure this was what you really wanted.”

“And what if she had been right?” Harry said, “What if for the past six months I’ve been so deliriously happy not because I’m finally living my life for myself and going after a relationship that feels like it’s truly for me rather than what everyone expected of me but because I was drugged? How would I be able to work beside you anymore? How would I be able to look at everything we did together, every work session, every staff pizza night that we spent flirting so much that Neville told us to get a room and see it the same way?” Persie began to huff louder in the silence as they came up to the start of their third lap. 

“I don’t know.” Draco finally said, looking ahead while Harry glanced at him. The sun was beginning to come over the mountains now, framing Draco in a soft light that made Harry’s heart squeeze uncomfortably. “But that’s also what she was worried about.” He added, “She wanted to make sure you were living for yourself. For once.” Draco kicked a bit of gravel at Harry with a smirk. 

“I’ll have you know Healer Winter is very impressed with my progress of making goals for myself that don’t involve others.” Of course, several of his goals involved other people but they were ones that he had for himself and himself alone. Not for Mrs. Weasley, not for Hermione or Ron, not even for McGonagall. They were ones for him. 

“Yeah, yeah, you get an O for therapy.” Draco said with a roll of his eyes. Harry laughed, grateful that he was finally starting to release the anger that he held. “I just don’t want you losing her friendship, even though I wish she were a bit smarter about her actions.”

“This is the same woman who held a journalist in a jar for a year, I don’t care what anyone says, that woman is a Gryffindor through and through.” Draco laughed harder as they slowed down at the end of their third lap, starting their cooldown. 

“I forgot you told me about that! No wonder Skeeter left you alone that whole year, she was terrified of Granger.” Harry chuckled himself, shaking his head.

“I guess I should have seen this coming, Hermione has cared about me for a long time.” Harry said, hooking his arm in Draco’s so that they could walk together. “Do you want to have breakfast in mine?” He asked, glancing back towards the castle. It was still early and they had plenty of time to kill before their first classes. 

“It seems like every time I have breakfast in yours, I end up naked in bed with you.” Draco told him, “And I seem to recall someone didn’t do all of their grading last night due to being pissed.”

“I finished the important ones, I can finish the rest tonight.” Harry waved off Draco’s concern, smirking at Draco’s disgruntled look. They both had very different teaching styles, Draco modeling his off of Snape’s primarily (though without so much verbal abuse since McGonagall warned him that he would be out faster than he could say “Oops” if she caught wind of it) where Harry modeled his after what he imagined Remus’s to be. “If you’re that worried about me taking your virtue,” Harry heard Draco mutter _again_ under his breath, “We can always just call it here.” They stood on the pathway to the castle, looking to the front door that led back to into the castle. Draco was clearly torn, looking between Harry and the door for a second before sighing,

“I will not end up naked in bed with you this time.” Draco said resolutely, taking Harry’s hand and pulling both of them towards the door. Harry pressed a laughing kiss to his temple. 

“Your wish is my command, my love.” He told him, grinning as they made their way back to his quarters.

~

To Draco’s credit, he didn’t end up naked in bed with him. He did however end up on the edge of Harry’s sofa, both hands buried deep in Harry’s hair and one foot out of his track pants so that it could be hooked over Harry’s shoulder. 

  
  


His legs were shaking as Harry sucked him practically dry, two fingers crooked in his arse and relentlessly rubbing against his prostate. He was trying to pull Harry off of him so that he could breathe, what he considered to be very unflattering noises coming from his mouth, but Harry just groaned at the tension and Draco knew he was screwed. They would write it on his tombstone, _Here lies Draco Malfoy, Died from Being Sucked Off by the Chosen One_. 

“Harry, please, gods. I can’t, I won’t--” If anything Draco was saying made any sense whatsoever, Harry didn’t seem to catch wind of it. Instead he added a third finger and Draco slammed his head against the back of the couch, wanting more but not knowing what exactly he wanted as tension built in his stomach. “Harry, gods, please I’m close, please.” He didn’t actually know what he was asking for either, though Harry seemed to catch what he wanted. He buried his fingers deep in Draco’s arse as he pressed Draco’s cock as much into his mouth as possible, his throat constricting around the tip of his cock. Draco was not proud that he wailed, digging his heel into Harry’s back as he came, shaking violently. 

Once he rejoined his reality, Harry was sitting back on his haunches, clearly pleased with himself. His own softening cock was sitting on the waistband of his own sweatpants, any sign that he had come on himself already Scourgified. Draco didn’t know if he should have been proud of that or not, the concept that sucking his cock got Harry off so much. He decided it was ok, lolling his head to the side to look at Harry. 

  
  


“You alright?” Harry asked, tucking himself back in as he gently removed the track pants that had somehow managed to hang onto Draco’s ankle the whole time and tried to guide him to stand. 

“Potter, you’re going to make a stupid face at this and I don’t really care, my legs will not support my weight right now. Just let me sit for a second.” Harry did make a stupid face and Draco sighed, both embarrassed that Harry was so pleased with his reaction and that he was being honest in that his legs were still shaking. 

“See, you didn’t end up naked.” Harry said from his place on the floor, sitting with his legs crossed and that all too pleased smile still on his face. 

“I might as well be.” Draco said, finally starting to get his legs under him so he could get up, though he did feel a bit like a newborn deer. “How did you convince me that sucking me off was a good idea?”

“Well, I asked you if you wanted coffee, you said yes, I joked that I should try and see if I could get you off before the coffee was done, and then we were on the couch, it was a very linear progression.” Draco sighed, wishing that his boyfriend weren’t so smart yet so cunning at the same time. 

“You just wanted to get me naked in some form.” Harry shrugged.

“It’s true, I do like you naked.” 

“I would hope you like me with clothes on too.” About five minutes later, Draco was back in his normal clothes, though he would need to run to his quarters to grab his protective robes before class so that he wouldn’t get burned if any of the students messed up their potions. Harry was still in his dressing gown, sipping his coffee with a plate of eggs and bacon at his place at the little table marking the spot between the kitchenette and the living room. His own plate that the house elves must have made for him was sitting at the spot across from Harry still steaming slightly. 

Draco didn’t know how to feel about this level of domesticity. He wanted it, gods knew how much he wanted it, but he also knew that he walked a very thin line. No matter how much Harry denied it, he knew that Hermione’s actions hurt him deeply. Harry didn’t like it when people made decisions for him, least of all when he didn’t know about them.

It had been something Draco had to fight with him about when he had to keep Harry at an arm’s distance. He had been scared of this exact reaction from Harry’s crew, the distrust and conviction that he had done something wrong. He could remember it so clearly when he had given in after six month’s worth of work sessions, flirting at the Head Table and during drinks with their friends, finally working through those years of misunderstandings and old beliefs, those almost kisses that Draco had to pull away from. It had been his birthday, he had just turned 20 and Pansy had decided that they needed to go somewhere new. 

Harry had been his friend at that point and Pansy was convinced that he should just let him do what he wanted. _“So what if it ends up badly? You would have had mind-blowing sex with the Chosen One.” Pansy said from her work table, sewing another layer on a dress that she had been diligently working on for the past three months._

_“I don’t want just mind-blowing sex with him, Pansy. He’s…”_

_“He’s Potter.” Pansy finished for him, shaking her head as she continued to crank the handle for her sewing machine. Hers was a mechanical kind that had been passed down since the 19th century, though Draco had heard about electricity and he wondered if he could give her an electrical sewing machine for Christmas._

_“Yes.” Draco agreed from the chaise he laid on. “He’s Harry. He’s… I mean, no one would ever say he’s fragile, but he doesn’t seem to realize what would happen if I let this happen. He would lose Granger, both of them now, I don’t even want to think about how the Weasleys would react. Oh and that’s before the media, McGonagall, Longbottom, I did look into it and as long as we’re discreet we’re allowed to date even as staff, but still.”_

_“You said he’s been pursuing you for the past, what, six months? If he hasn’t given up by now, he’s not going to. He’s also coming to the club tonight so that’s when you can finally let the lion devour.” Draco cringed and shook his head._

_“Ok, I might, but you can never say that again.” Pansy howled with laughter, pulling the fabric off of her machine and cutting the threads with scissors._

_The Sapphire was the hottest new club in Britain, pulsing lights and a mixture of wizarding and Muggle music pounding on every wall. Pansy had gotten a first floor booth that overlooked the dance floor and was sectioned off for their party. Harry had brought the cake and made Draco’s heart thud in his ears louder than the music with the outfit that he chose. A mesh tanktop with a pair of red denim pants and a pair of black sneakers._

_Draco wasn’t proud of it, but The Sapphire was the first place where he dropped to his knees in a men’s toilet and sucked Harry off like his life depended on it._

“Draco?” Draco blinked to see that Harry was grinning at him, clearly mid-snap. “Alright?”

“Yeah, just… thinking.” Draco said, taking a bite of his eggs. They had put extra cheese and peppers, just the way he liked them. 

“Anything better than whatever John Matthews decided was a good answer for _What are the three Unforgivable Curses?_ ” Draco groaned. He was convinced that Matthews wanted to get the award for the Dumbest Ravenclaw in existence. Which drove all of the staff crazy since they knew he was smart, there was some sort of pleasure he got out of acting like an idiot. 

“Just thinking about my birthday. I don’t know how Pansy is going to top it next year.” He said with a grin when Harry’s eyes flashed, clearly remembering their first tryst. “You’re not getting another round out of me, it’s alright eight.” Harry glanced at the oven, clearly wishing it didn’t read _8:01._

“Yeah, okay.” Harry said, finishing off his bacon and draining the last dredges of his coffee. “Thanks for this.” He added, giving Draco a soft look that made it hard for him to want to leave.

“Any time.” Draco said, letting Harry take his hand and lace their fingers together.

~

Harry was not prepared to have Ron standing in his quarters when he came back to get ready for afternoon classes. He had been certain that Ron wouldn’t come to see him until after he had forgiven Hermione since he had just spent the last week in Russia on a mission. Persie was beating her tail against the floor happily, clearly expecting Ron to give her treats or pets and she was disappointed that she was getting neither.

“What is going on with you and Hermione, mate?” Ron asked, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“She didn’t tell you?” Harry had promised Hermione that he wouldn’t drag Ron into it since she swore up and down that he hadn’t known she did it. _It’s odd to me how easy he and Malfoy became chatty once you two got together_. 

“She said something about love potions and you not seeing her perspective but she wouldn’t give me the whole story. So I figured I’d come to you, but your Floo is blocked from our house so I had to come here in person.” Harry had blocked it shortly after Hermione told him the truth and he had ignored the owl that came from the Granger residence that morning, sending it back without the letter opened. 

“I wasn’t ready to talk to her yet and unfortunately…” Harry motioned towards the fireplace to say “that meant you too”. Persie went over to Harry and rested her head against his thigh, looking up at him with a pitiful look until he finally started petting her head. 

“Yeah, yeah, alright so what happened?” Harry felt the lingering anger but running with Draco that morning and talking it out had helped simmer the absolute hatred he had felt the night before. Harry took out the papers that his students had given him from his bag and started filling it for his next class with a shake of his head.

“She did four love potion tests on me, Ron.” Ron looked confused and opened his mouth to speak when Harry continued, “I didn’t know she did them.” Ron’s mouth clamped shut. 

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Harry shuffled through the graded papers he had managed to work on the night before, making sure they were in something resembling the seating arrangement and that he had graded them fairly. Persie went back to her bed and huffed in a clearly disgruntled sound. “She didn’t tell you that bit, did she?”

“Well… no, she didn’t. All she told me was that she had been worried at how fast you were going with Malfoy since we didn’t even know you guys were friends let alone… you know, about to date at the time.” Ron said, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“Yeah, she told me all of that last night when she tried to force her ‘perspective’ on me too.” Harry snapped. He closed his eyes and curled his toes into his shoes, shutting his mouth before he said something he regretted again. “Look… Hogwarts is its own ecosystem, okay? We both know that.”

“Right.” Ron agreed, sitting down on the arm of the couch. 

“What probably would have taken a couple of years of me getting to know Draco the way that I do anywhere else took months instead. We see each other every day, Ron. Sure, in the beginning I tried to rush things because he was the first thing I had seen after a year in the Janus Ward working with Healer Winter that was familiar and could make me feel something more. Do you and Hermione genuinely think we didn’t fight? Lord knows, we fought so many times that it was almost comical but you can’t fight every day. Not when you’re an adult. So we started just talking and then talking every day when you’re working naturally turns into dinner, and then it was drinks with you guys and then it was just him and Neville and me eating pizza and then…”

“Then you were in love. Not just searching for a high.” Ron finished for him. “You didn’t see the way he looked at you those first couple of drinks, mate.”

“No, I didn’t.” Harry agreed, “And Draco didn’t let me see it. He knew that I had just come out of intensive therapy and work and he didn’t want me rushing into anything else. But there was something about his birthday, I don’t know Ron. Something finally broke and… I’m happy.” Harry said, holding his arms out like he had nothing else to give.

“You weren’t happy with Ginny?” Ron asked, looking genuinely curious.

“I loved her too, Ron. But… I told someone once that loving her was like loving a rainstorm. It’s cool and it’s familiar and it’s comforting… loving Draco is like I’m caught on fire every day and I’m enjoying every flame.” Harry told him, slightly out of breath. Ron sat there staring at him for a few moments and suddenly Harry was twelve again, ranting to his best friend about how he needed to find out exactly what Malfoy was up to so that they could save the school. Harry felt it and he knew Ron did too. 

Then they were twenty again and Ron shook his head as he gave Persie an affectionate pat on the head. “You’ve always been obsessed with him, mate. At least now you have a better outlet than accusing him of things.” Ron blew out a long breath, looking up at the ceiling. Harry huffed on a laugh, putting away the papers and the book that he wanted to reference in his OWL class lecture today.

“Yeah.” Ron shook his head as he got up.

“I was supposed to get you to forgive her faster, you know that, right?”

“I had a feeling. Come on Friday to pizza, I didn’t think you’d even be awake right now so I didn’t think to extend the invitation.” When Harry thought it was a simple matter of Hermione and Draco just needing exposure to each other, he had extended the invitation. _I just don’t know, Harry._ _I know you like him and everything, but I just don’t think we’re going to get along._

“Timezones are the invention of some awful being.” Ron said as they made their way towards the door. “Is Hermione allowed to come?” Harry thought it over as they walked towards the Defense hall. On the one hand, it was nowhere near a week. On the other, it was Hermione.

“If she feels comfortable. Me and Draco are probably going to be a couple doing couple things.” 

“She’ll live.” 

Harry chuckled and threw an arm over Ron’s shoulder. “Since you’re here, could I interest you in a guest appearance regarding magical creature detainment in the Auror department?” Ron swiftly ducked under Harry’s arm and started walking the other way.

“Not a chance!” Ron threw over his shoulder. 

“Worth a shot.” Harry yelled, not bothering to follow him. He had a class to teach.

~

Draco was grateful that it was Friday. He should have known when his first years had executed their potion work perfectly that something was going to go wrong and his NEWT class delivered by acting like they had never seen a cauldron before. Apparently the lower Herbology classes and Harry’s classes had acted the same way and he was grateful that he could commiserate with the two of them about it. 

“Is there a full moon soon or something?” Neville asked as he chased the bottom of his pizza with his mouth as it sloped dangerously towards his napkin-covered lap. The shop they normally got their pizza from had tried a new recipe that apparently meant the crust couldn’t hold the toppings. Harry snorted from where he had his head laid in Draco’s lap, watching Neville’s antics with a grin.

“Nope, the full moon isn’t for another week.” 

“I bet if we asked Flitwick and McGonagall they’d say that their classes were nuts today too.” Draco said as he flung an arm over his eyes to block out the admittedly low light. 

“Yeah, it seems like once they get going on their bad behaviour it never ends.” Harry agreed, “Oh before we stop talking shop for the week, can I get your opinions on an idea I had?” Neville nodded around his mouthful of pizza and Draco waved Harry on.

“Ok, so I was thinking for the hexes section of the curriculum, I wanted to present it kind of like this.” Harry waved a hand and a diagram appeared in the air between them in reds, yellows, and greens. “Since I’m trying to make it clear that all magic can be used nefariously throughout the whole of the year, I kind of wanted to start it with the simple things for the first years but make it harder as I go up the years. So, for the first years I might have this list next to it.” A short list of spells appeared on the right of the diagram that Harry started with. “And you know, there are the obviously nefarious ones so they’d go in red, the majority would probably be considered green since the first years are still working on that critical thinking aspect but then as I go up the years, it gets harder.” More spells started to appear on the list and Draco could see that it would be much harder to differentiate between the spells the more complex they got. 

“Hmm, intriguing. So would this be a one class activity or would it be over the course of a week or so?” 

“I was thinking maybe a two class activity, it would kind of depend on how the students handled it.” Neville made a sound of agreement.

“My only concern would be those who would really struggle with differentiating between them.” Harry rolled onto his side towards the pizza box and grabbed a slice for himself. “Also by the time you hit seventh year, that list gets atrocious. So maybe you could do it more like--” Draco pulled out his wand and adjusted the list so that it gave categories of spells rather than specifying each spell individually as Harry went back to laying on his back. “You see what I mean?”

Harry grimaced as he let the pizza hang from its crust and dribble into his mouth. “A plate, darling?” Draco suggested, putting the plate on Harry’s stomach so that he had somewhere to put it for his retort. 

“So, here’s my problem with that. I want them to really think about each spell, not just the categories. Like, hexes. A first year would automatically assume those are Dark Magic without really thinking through the different spells that fall into that category.” Harry picked up the slice again so that he could get another bite.

“Right but my problem is it gets almost too complex the older you get and the more spells you know.”

“That’s the point!” Harry said, obviously forgetting that he had his pizza in his hand as he threw his arm out. The flimsy slice broke off at the crust from the momentum and went flying towards the fireplace as it flared and Hermione stepped through. Draco couldn’t decide if he was horrified or delighted as the pizza slice hit Hermione in the face and slid to the floor. He glanced at Neville who was equally horrified and awestruck and Harry who looked plain horrified. 

Hermione grimaced as Ron stepped through with a case of beers, glancing at his wife with a concerned look. “Um…” Hermione appeared to be thinking through every life decision she had made up to that point as Harry hastily sat up and turned so that he was sitting upright next to Draco on the sofa. After a few moments of suffocating silence, Hermione finally spoke,

“You know what? After the past three and a half days, I kind of deserved that.” Draco took that as the permission he needed to bend over and laugh hysterically. He heard Harry laughing as well and felt him lean against his side, his hair brushing against his neck. After a couple of minutes of laughter, Draco looked up to see Hermione watching both of them with an unsure look on her face. Harry was still hiccupping on his laughter, hiding his face in Draco’s shoulder, the tops of his glasses brushing up against his shirt.

He had so many things that he wanted to say to her, quite a few of them nicer than she deserved. But instead he wrapped an arm around Harry’s shoulders and looked at him in amusement, leaning back so that Harry’s face finally had to leave his shoulder. Harry looked up at him with the light reflected in his eye and his joy scrunching up his face. He was amazed at how just over a year ago, all he had seen was the guardedness of a man who had been hurt. A man who was taken by an unforgiving society, thrown into a position far bigger than he ever could have known, and then expected to sink or swim, die or don’t. Then once that position was used up, was asked to just be fine with everything that had happened to him. A brilliant mind that was asked to stretch once more but couldn’t find the flexibility and nearly broke. But he was safe now in the cradle of a place that took care of him and was his home. 

He looked back to Hermione, who sat next to Neville and glanced at the diagram that still floated innocently in the air. “Um… what’s that?” She asked hesitantly, clearly unsure if she was allowed to say anything yet. Draco watched Harry fight off the desire to be defensive, though he did wave a hand at the diagram and it disintegrated. 

“Just work stuff. Nothing very interesting.” Draco hated seeing Harry this defensive, especially about his work. “How are you?” Harry asked with a tinge of honesty in his voice. Hermione glanced to Draco, who gave the subtlest of shrugs. He wasn’t going to do anything that could make her hate him more than she already apparently did.

“It’s good, it’s good.” Hermione said, nodding. Ron took a slice of pizza and a plate before looking to Draco,

“So, what’d you think of the match last Saturday? Exciting stuff.” Draco gave a mental sigh of relief for Weasley (Granger now, he supposed)’s complete inability to go five minutes without talking Quidditch with him.

“Yeah, I would definitely agree to that. It’s really shaking out to be a tough match come the end of the season now that the Tornados are out of the running. I’m still holding out hope that Macabee will be able to get back into the Beater position before the finals.”

“I don’t know, forty feet is a fall even when the grounds are covered in Softening charms. It doesn’t surprise me that they are thinking about staying out the rest of the season.”

“But I need those five Sickles from you when the Falcons pound the Catapults in the finals.” Draco joked, grinning when Granger’s ears went red. Draco changed his stance, resting a leg firmly against Harry’s while the other went up onto the couch’s seat. “And that’s only going to happen when Macabee gets their happy butt in gear and gets back on their broom.”

“Malfoy, I’m not sure if anyone taught you this, but you’re not supposed to count on money that you will never get.” Ron said, clearly proud of his comeback as he popped open his beer and took a long swig, his Adam’s apple bobbing from the work. Draco glanced at Hermione, who was watching Ron with the same sort of look he was sure he had given Harry at least once. A little loving, a little hungry, just a touch disgusted at how much beer a man could drink at once. That wasn’t to say that Draco didn’t love a beer on a hot day, but Harry and Ron sometimes made him wonder whether he was missing something. Maybe he just preferred wine to beer (which he did, even if Harry couldn’t tell the difference between a chardonnay and a pinot grigio other than one of them tasting slightly different). 

  
“I’m not counting money I’ll never get. I’m counting money that I _will_ get once my team wins.” He said with a grin, laying back against Harry’s side. He felt Harry press a kiss to his head and honestly, even if Granger thought that he was drugging Harry every day to make him fall in love with him, there was no way that Draco couldn’t fall a little bit in love with him too.


End file.
